Students digest realities of poverty
By Jennifer Gottesfeld
Jan. 24, 2007 9:00 p.m.
Kasey Topp only received a spoonful of rice for her dinner Wednesday night, a change from her usual nightly meals.
The Social Justice Alliance used Topp, a third-year microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics student, and about 60 others who attended its hunger banquet as examples of the millions of starving people in the world.
“The banquet is a metaphor for how food is distributed unequally in the world,” said Kyla Thomas, a third-year sociology and communication studies student and member of the Social Justice Alliance. “Obviously (the guests) aren’t really experiencing what it’s like to go hungry but we are using the banquet as a way to help visualize it as best we can.”
The alliance divided the Ackerman Union second floor lounge into three areas: sections for the rich, the middle class and the poor. As guests walked in, they received a card with a story about the life they would lead for the night. Fifteen percent of the guests were given rich cards, 25 percent received middle class cards, and 60 percent were poor. These statistics were representative of the numbers of people across the world in each category.
“The majority of the people who come will be eating what the majority of the world’s population eats on a daily basis,” said Saira Gandhi, a fourth-year international development studies student and SJA member.
The students who received rich cards sat at tables in the middle of the room and were served pasta, salad, rice and beans. The guests who received middle-class cards stood in line and were given a helping of rice and a helping of beans, while the guests with the poor cards received only rice and water.
“I’m definitely not full,” said Topp, who was seated in the poor section. “Even though I try to understand, I’m so far removed from this type of poverty, it’s hard to imagine.”
Phillip Kalinowski, a homeless man who lives on Third Street Promenade, and political science Professor Yeheskel Hasenfeld spoke during the dinner. Kalinowski said the Social Justice Alliance developed a relationship with him through its Food Not Bombs program, which distributes food every Thursday night to the homeless men and women living on the Third Street Promenade.
“The question is not about the amount of food that we’re getting, but the quality of the food,” Kalinowski said. “A lot of food that’s given to us is out-dated and high in calories but not in nutrients. Food Not Bombs gives us the best meal we get all week. It’s not only food for our bodies but for our spirits, and what they’ve done for us has been incredible.”
Kalinowski, 59, got a BA and MA at Western Illinois University in studio art, painting, printmaking and art history. He worked in historic-building restoration until he became ill. He lost his job, his medical insurance, and he couldn’t pay his rent. He decided to move to Los Angeles to start over but found himself living on the street instead.
“What I’d like to do is give (the audience) a feeling of what it’s like to be on the street,” Kalinowski said. “I want to show them that you can go from having a job and two college degrees to living on the street. It can happen to anyone.”
The idea of the Hunger Banquet was introduced to the Social Justice Alliance by Oxfam, an organization that deals with addressing and combatting issues of poverty and hunger in the world. According to Oxfam, 1 billion people are impoverished and 850 million suffer from chronic hunger .
“I hope people think more about the food that they waste,” said Diana Ionescu, a second-year international development studies student and SJA member. “This banquet is about really appreciating and acknowledging what you do have.”
